Minnesota defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 1-0, at Wells Fargo Center, with the lone offensive source — for a third straight game — coming from the stick of the guy wearing No. 16 in a Wild sweater.

On Monday, Zucker, who tied for the league-lead last season with a plus-34, was rewarded for his tremendous stretch by being named the NHL’s First Star of the Week — the first individual honor of his NHL career.

Per @EliasSports, #mnwild‘s Jason Zucker is the first NHL player to score six consecutive of his team’s goals since the #bruins‘ Glen Murray in 2004

For the past four days and 184 minutes, 4 seconds of Minnesota hockey, plenty of names have shown up in the box score, but Zucker’s has been the only one in the goal column: He’s scored each of Minnesota’s past six goals, fueling a 2-1 stretch and salvaging a .500, four-game road trip that began with Minnesota losing on its first two stops. He actually has played a part in the Wild’s past seven goals, with an assist on the final goal of the Nov. 6 loss to Boston.

Goal-scoring streaks game-to-game aren’t that rare, but for Zucker to be the only skater on his team to find the back of the net for this kind of stretch is historic.

Jason Zucker of the @mnwild has scored six consecutive team goals, one shy of the longest such run in NHL history set by Cy Denneny in 1920-21 (w/ SEN) and matched by Brian Noonan in 1991-92 (w/ CHI). #NHLStatspic.twitter.com/08GNRZQK09

Zucker will have a chance to tie and potentially break the league record when the Wild return to Xcel Energy on Tuesday to face the Flyers again. And Zucker will undoubtedly receive fanfare from the hometown fans.

Think George Washington trotting in on his white horse, only instead of defeating the British, Zucker’s conquests featured Les Habitants and the Broad Street Bullies.

Zucker has been a goal scorer throughout his career despite doing so in a singular vacuum (at 5-on-5). He burst onto the scene in 2014-15, where, despite only appearing in 51 games, Zucker scored 21 goals (17 coming at 5-on-5). He was also eighth among Minnesota skaters in even strength ice time per game. Given his high-production, low-usage profile, Zucker finished second in the NHL that season behind Rick Nash in individual goals per 60 minutes, ahead of guys like Nikita Kucherov, Vladimir Tarasenko, Steven Stamkos and Patrick Kane.

The next season was a down year: Zucker scored 13 goals in 71 games, with his personal shooting percentage dropping by over 50 percent from 16.9 to 8.2. He signed only a two-year contract that offseason and admitted it was because he didn’t live up to expectations.

But then last season came, and a motivated Zucker scored a career-high 22 goals (19 at 5-on-5) in the first of that two-year, $4 million bridge contract. Zucker now has 31 goals in his past 95 games, and in a league that pays for production, he’ll be in line for a big payday before he even sniffs restricted free agency next July if he can keep this up.

The past four days though have been a hyper-sample in how Zucker excels in his role and how he can be an effective goal scorer in this league. He’s also shown off some new tricks that coach Bruce Boudreau has asked him to try out.

On most shifts, Zucker is the fastest skater on the ice, and while he’s rarely going to outmuscle a defender for the puck, he doesn’t need to. In the past three games, Zucker has scored a shorthanded goal, a power-play goal, an empty net goal and three at 5-on-5. The power-play goal, his third of the season, matched his career total entering this season, spanning 248 games.

It’s been a remarkable stretch for Zucker, and though it goes without saying it can’t continue longterm, much of what he’s doing is repeatable insofar as how he’s scoring and the process that’s creating these goals.

Goal No. 1, at Toronto

Trailing late in the first period against the Maple Leafs, Zucker gains possession in the neutral zone and dumps it deep. This is a smart moment to sling the puck below the blue line, with Toronto pressing high, not giving Zucker a chance to enter the zone with control.

Chris Stewart gets in quickly on the forecheck, giving Minnesota a chance to win the puck back. Zucker is going to be the next man in, while Eric Staal will scissor across his path to the corner. This creates faux-interference, giving Zucker a clean route to the puck, and also separating Staal from his man.

And not only does Zucker get to a blue sweater quickly, but look at the angle he takes. With Stewart cutting off a rim to the opposite side, Zucker forces Zach Hyman onto his backhand. Anticipating a hit, Hyman makes a bad play, throwing a blind pass into an area he thinks will be vacant but, because of that criss-cross Staal and Zucker just executed, Hyman is actually about to send the puck right onto the former’s stick.

This next part is the moment that creates the goal and illuminates that whole idea of ‘true scorers’ having a nose for goals. Once Staal gets this puck, Zucker picks his head up and sees two blue sweaters idling at the bottom of the faceoff circle. Though you can’t see his pupils dilate, you can tell in his posture Zucker recognizes a missed coverage, and he darts to the front of the crease. Before Staal shoots the puck, Zucker is making his way to the blue paint, before turning his hips and rounding the rebound to slam it home from in close.

Goal No. 2, at Toronto

Last season, Zucker logged 19 minutes, 42 seconds of total power-play time, 443rd among NHL skaters. This season, Zucker is already up to 43:19 on the man-advantage (third among Wild skaters), and rewarding Boudreau for his decision to use Zucker in this phase of special teams.

On this look, Zucker is the net-front player, an interesting spot for a guy who isn’t overly physical. Ryan Suter has the puck on the point, and Toronto is in a tight penalty-killing square, how they want to be stationed. Staal is on the half-wall, while Tyler Ennis is in that bumper spot. Zucker will make his way toward the blue paint, but do a fly-by, more so scouting the area.

After Suter moves the puck to Staal, Zucker sets up in front of Frederik Andersen. Both Leafs forwards drop their sticks toward Ennis, where they should be, but with such a big gap off Zucker, the Wild is probing and learning things about the Leafs on the fly. Toronto is also beginning to get a bit distended; though the play is on Staal’s side of the ice, the Leafs have really shifted to that side.

So when Staal plays the puck back to Suter, the Leafs defensemen are still pretty high, each even with the circles, while Zucker is floating out of the frame. But Toronto is beginning to chase the puck, and when Matt Dumba cocks his stick for a potential one-timer, it at least catches the attention of Dominic Moore, who moves his stick onto that side. When the play quickly goes back to Staal’s side, it’s going to be another change of direction for the Leafs.

When Staal gets the puck, he doesn’t hesitate to shoot, and for good reason. Zucker has Andersen completely screened, and if that didn’t make things hard enough, his own defenseman Ron Hainsey is providing a double-screen. The three closest penalty killers to Zucker aren’t very close at all, and Hainsey has to stay somewhat higher because Connor Brown, circled atop the frame, gets caught in yo-yo coverage between Suter and Staal, and isn’t close enough to make a play on the latter.

Goal No. 3, at Montreal

This is a play where Montreal goes from being in a good looking offensive position to turning the play on its head one moment later.

Minnesota is in a tight PK square and is getting stuck low in the zone. With the puck worked to the goal line, the Wild begin to collapse toward that home plate area around the crease.

Max Pacioretty takes a bad angle shot that Devan Dubnyk gets square to. Probably as Pacioretty hoped for, the rebound ricochets out to the other side, but with everyone in so tight, the puck ends up sliding to the boards. Meanwhile, four Montreal skaters are packed below the circles, and when Zucker and Mikael Granlund peel out, the Wild have numbers the other way.

Once Granlund chips the puck toward the blue line, evading both Nikita Scherbak and Charles Hudon, it forces Artturi Lehkonen to leave Zucker and chase Granlund. As the two forwards fight for the puck, Zucker picks up a full head of steam, and with Lehkonen battling to hold up the play, once Granlund lifts his stick and pokes it past him, Zucker is Katie-Ledecky-ahead-of-the-pack.

Goal No. 4, at Montreal

Zucker is hanging around the crease with Nino Niederreiter and Staal battling to keep possession up top near the blue line. Again, for Zucker to be an effective net-front player, he isn’t going to bang bodies and use brute force to carve out space, but strategically pick his spots.

So this is kind of funny. Zucker does a good job of tip-toeing around the blue paint and going undetected by Jordie Benn. When the defenseman does finally see him, it’s almost like he thinks Zucker won’t try to muscle his way into the shooting lane (true) so he taps him with his stick to acknowledge his presence and let’s that be that.

But then, like a crafty wide receiver, Zucker uses the subtlest of push-offs to create space at the point of attack. Straightening up to play the puck, Zucker uses his stick and in one motion creates separation and gets into the shooting lane.

Just as Benn tries to back into Zucker and initiate contact, Zucker uses that kinetic energy against Benn. Like depolarized magnets, Zucker bounces off the Montreal defender and creates just enough space.

Goal No. 5, at Montreal

Not much to say about an empty-net goal. Nice, “my teammate is on a hat trick” recognition by Niederreiter, who was in semi-pursuit of that loose puck before pulling up and giving way to Zucker.

Goal No. 6, at Philadelphia

Zucker starts out on the forecheck, helping Minnesota regain possession below the blue line. He’ll spin off Robert Hagg, allowing him to skate straight into the low slot.

All of a sudden, Zucker is all by himself in a good shooting position. When the puck works its way up to Dumba, the Flyers are all huddled around the crease. The Philadelphia forwards on the outside — Michal Raffl and Valtteri Filppula — each begin to make their way toward Dumba.

Because the Flyers momentum is taking them away from the crease, Zucker is able to slip between the two forwards as Dumba shoots. Simplified, Zucker is crashing the crease looking for a rebound.

While this puck kicks back off the end boards, Zucker has already identified that Dumba’s “make sure it gets deep” angle is going to pinball this puck out to the opposite side of the crease. Though Filppula is in better position to make a play, it’s Zucker who is first out of the gates, which, for the speedy winger, generally portends good things.

Scoring in bunches is more often than not coupled with luck. On this most recent goal, Zucker’s shot was not on-target, but because Brian Elliott was in scramble mode, he ended up deflecting it into his own net.

Zucker though had to be in the right place to fire that shot and had to do a bunch of things correctly to put himself in that position. On his two net-front deflections, there were soft defensive efforts by Toronto and Montreal, but Zucker also went to a dangerous area and was smart in how he spaced the ice and played off the opposition. Empty-net goals and shorthanded breakaways are completely circumstantial, but attention to the process affords players the opportunities to find themselves in these moments.

Zucker has been doing so many things well, and the payoff has been a ridiculously hot three-game stretch. When doing things well has a tangible payoff, it makes the player look that much better. But so long as Zucker continues to be an efficient, sneaky, offensively-minded player, the goals will continue to come, even if other Minnesota skaters sprinkle some in between.

(Top image credit: Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

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Evan Sporer, a social media manager for DAZN, is a contributor to The Athletic NHL. This is his sixth season covering the NHL. He’s previously worked as the team reporter for the Minnesota Wild, a writer and editor for NHL.com, and a writer for the Boston Bruins. Follow Evan on Twitter @ev_sporer.